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<title>Darkside by withluvsan (lostlovelis)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27711551">Darkside</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostlovelis/pseuds/withluvsan'>withluvsan (lostlovelis)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The King's Arc [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>ATEEZ (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>I Will Go Down With This Ship, I was supposed to be watching online classes, M/M, Musician!Hongjoong, hongjoong has struggles, i miss and love my boys, i wrote this while listening to lindsey stirling's music, king!seonghwa, no beta we die like men, seonghwa is feeling lonely, you should read masquerade</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:19:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>651</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27711551</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostlovelis/pseuds/withluvsan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Again, the song floated around, walking dangerously in the line between laughing in relief and crying of despair, but never choosing a side. Until it stopped.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The King's Arc [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026781</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Darkside</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>it is like a part 2 of my one-shot "masquerade"</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Being a king was boring, Seonghwa decided in the moment he was crowned.</p><p>His older sister has abdicated the throne in order to marry a prince from the northern kingdom, leaving his only sibling to take care of their people. Long, tiring years had passed since then, and Seonghwa still hated the fact that he was the next in the line.</p><p>–Pay attention to me! – Minji whined, pulling his brother by his arm and walking around the hall, with her brilliant white and gold mask right above her nose. Damned masked ball to celebrate her birthday.</p><p>–Where is your husband? Go nag at him – mumbled the king, with fake annoyance dancing on his tone. He still held his sister’s elbow, in case of someone bumping into them by accident.</p><p>–San is dealing his king business. Which is mostly why I renounced. Being a crowned queen was horrible – she mumbled, pulling her brother to a corner, blabling about some guest she didn’t like. Seonghwa didn’t care enough to pay attention. Until he heard something definitely interesting – Anyways, I bumped into that musician that played for us once, do you remember? He said that he would come over and play in the ball again! – she was so excited, but Seonghwa was malfunctioning. <em>She had found him again?</em></p><p>–Where did you find him? I thought he had vanished in the air – it wasn’t a lie. After that day, they never heard about the musician again, not in their kingdom, nor in the vicinity. He had simply disappeared.</p><p>–He did. I saw him while passing by a shack a few weeks ago, coming back from my visit to your castle. I made my carriage stop so I could talk to him, asking about what had happened. Apparently, he has a younger brother who needs a lot of care, so I offered a good amount of money for him to play for us today. It may help cover the expenses from his brother treatment, such as…</p><p>Her voice died in the moment that they heard the first chord, too many emotions filling the crowded room.</p><p>They were able to hear a needle falling on the ground, and the sifting of the people.</p><p>The orchestra had stopped, giving the spotlight to the single man standing in the middle of the hall.</p><p>The man had on a heavy coat, flowers embroidered on the fabric with red threads which matched with his black and red mask.</p><p>The violin cried again and again, anguish and fear turned into high pitched notes and dangerous movements of wrist. Every sound echoed majestically, evoking the sensation of lost and grief.</p><p>Seonghwa felt like crying in that moment.</p><p>And then, the music changed.</p><p>It went from a sharp anguish piece, to a moment in the garden of heaven, like a dream in the middle of a nightmare.</p><p>It danced around, hanging up and down, bringing up grief and hope, love and longing. It was like talking with the darkside of himself, accounting the good, the bad and the evil of his actions.</p><p>Seonghwa felt overwhelmed, clenching his chest as his breath got caught on his throat.</p><p>Again, the song floated around, walking dangerously in the line between laughing in relief and crying of despair, but never choosing a side. Until it stopped.</p><p>The music ended with a sob, and a moment of silence with a million meanings, too ambiguous to be interpreted directly.</p><p>The musician had a few tears running down his cheeks and an erratic breathing.</p><p>He quickly dismissed the ovation and left the hall in a rush.</p><p>Seonghwa went after him, demanding to not to be followed by anyone as he hunted the musician, until they were outside and Seonghwa lost his track, the wind huffing his hair and the moon hanging high in the sky.</p><p>–I will find you again.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>This time, there was no mask, nor coat, to be found.</em>
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